1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for inspecting a fuel battery without actually generating electric power by supplying fuel gas.
2. Description of Related Art
A fuel battery has a fuel battery stack in which plural fuel battery cells are stacked. The fuel battery stack includes a cell monitor for monitoring a state of each fuel battery cell. The each fuel battery cell and the cell monitor are connected by a connector cable.
Conventionally, a connection inspection method of the connector cable of the cell monitor is conducted by actually supplying fuel gas to the fuel battery stack to generate a battery reaction. The each fuel battery cell carries an electrical charge by generation of the battery reaction, and the electrical charge is received as a voltage signal from a cell monitor substrate. In this way, it is confirmed that there is no problem with the connection of the connector cable.
As a technique related to the fuel battery including the cell monitor, for example, a fuel battery unit that includes: a fuel battery having plural stacked fuel battery cells; and a cell monitor for monitoring a state of the each fuel battery cell, and in which the cell monitor is arranged in a side region of the fuel battery has been disclosed (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2013-180643 (JP 2013-180643 A)).
By the way, in a conventional inspection method of a finished product of the fuel battery, oxidation gas (air, oxygen: O2) and hydrogen (H2) as the fuel gas needs to be supplied through the fuel battery stack. Thus, the inspection cannot be conducted until the fuel battery is connected to a fuel gas supply device and is brought into a state that the fuel gas can be supplied to the fuel battery.
In addition, inspection of the fuel battery in a manufacturing process of the fuel battery has not been considered. If it is assumed that the inspection is conducted in the manufacturing process of the fuel battery, an assumable method would be to measure electric insulation resistance of an exterior part. Since it is assumed that hydrogen and oxygen are supplied to the fuel battery stack to actually generate electric power in the inspection of an electric insulation property of this exterior part, the fuel gas supply device needs to be connected to the battery. Thus, inspection facility becomes large and complicated, and a difficulty in terms of the facility is expected in conducting an inspection by actually generating the electric power in the fuel battery stack. In fact, the subject applicant could not find literature that has been known publically and describes an inspection method conducted by actually generating the electric power in the manufacturing process.